Those Small-Screen Idolettes and Their Big-Screen Tunes

It's movie-tune night on "American Idol," in which the Idolettes will sing flick songs under the watchful eye of a "legend," show host Ryan Seacrest says.

Of course, when you think movie legend, you think Quentin Tarantino, right?

Tonight's show is "kind of an historic evening," Seacrest tells us. That's because, for the very first time ever on "Idol," only half the judges are going to critique each performance. And that's because last week's show ran a whopping nine minutes long.

That means Simon Cowell -- the only judge worth listening to -- will get to comment on only half the Idolettes' performances. On the other hand, they've lined up the performances so Simon will weigh in on all the strongest competitors.

Allison Iraheta sings "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" from the flick "Armageddon." Judge Paula Abdul reads one of her prepared speeches, explaining that Allison possesses the same "special sauce" as Idolette Adam Lambert, this year's winner-to-be. Simon makes fun of Paula's sauce line but praises Allison.

Anoop Desai sings "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" from "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves." Tarantino has advised him to sing it gutturally. Anoop ignores Tarantino's advice. Anoop is reviewed by judges Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi -- he's not a player.

Adam sings the Steppenwolf tune "Born to Be Wild" from the "Easy Rider" soundtrack. Tarantino admits that Adam did not actually perform the song for him during rehearsal, which prompts the question: Exactly what advice did he give Adam?

"My God!" Paula gasps after this latest original, in-your-face performance by Adam. She struggles to remember her speech: "You dare to dance in the path of greatness. . . . Fortune favors the brave." Wow -- her publicist has checked out both "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations" and "The Bhagavad Gita" from the library?! Simon pronounces Adam's performance "vocally incredible" but a little "Rocky Horror Show"-ish.

Tarantino tells Matt Giraud to sing clearly the lyrics to "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman," which was used in the Johnny Depp flick "Don Juan DeMarco." Randy calls it pitchy. Kara slams him for genre-crossing, a dreaded "Idol" flaw -- nearly as bad as "I don't know who you are."

Danny Gokey plays the dead-wife card again, singing "Endless Love," from the flick of same name because, he says, the song touched his heart. Tarantino advises him not to do the annoying hand gestures he's learned, so his emotion will dissipate through his eyes instead.

Danny also ignores Tarantino's advice, and by the fourth word in the tune, is doing his annoying hand cliches, though he does seem really aware of it and nervous, as if he's afraid Tarantino is going to leap up onstage and pin his arms back. Paula tells him his magic is the timbre of his voice. Simon said it was boring but "I can see you were emotional so I congratulate you for that." Once again -- the Gokey Pass.

Kris Allen decides to sing "Falling Slowly" from "Once." During rehearsal, Tarantino comes up with the brilliant idea that he should maybe play an instrument while he sings! Kris, too, ignores Tarantino's advice -- I think we have a trend -- and does not play an instrument. Randy says it was pitchy from Note 1. Kara, on the other hand, thinks it was one of his best moments ever, and says so while doing her Lean Forward of Sincerity. Seacrest cuts her off after that because it's 8:52 p.m.